Latest Grand Theft Auto V trailer wears its inspiration on its sleeve

Upcoming game seems to channel The Sopranos, The Wire and more.

The new Grand Theft Auto V trailer Rockstar released today does its best to showcase the game's three protagonists as original characters with their own unique stories. Those storylines might seem a bit familiar, though, especially if you're a fan of some of the most popular TV crime dramas of the last few years.

First up, we have Michael, aka thin Tony Soprano, a mobster who complains to his therapist that he wants "something that isn't this." Much like The Sopranos, the minute or so we see of his story focuses on his efforts to balance the demands of being a crime boss and a good family man who "lives the dream." He's dealing with an apparent mid-life crisis, a drinking problem, obvious rage issues, and a shrink who tells him he's "plainly addicted to chaos." Sound like any fictional characters you know?

Franklin's story, meanwhile, takes an explicitly inner-city, The Wire-inspired take on the world of organized crime. He deals with accusations of being not authentic enough as a "gangbanger" and associates who "thought we was trying to get out of this bullshit" as he "tries to make some paper and not get killed." It's hard to gauge Franklin's actual motivations and character amid the constant gunfire and car chases in his portion of the trailer, but one of the onlookers sums it up pretty well: "Ha! Gangsta shit!"

Trevor's trailer is by far the most interesting of the three. He's a "major drug dealer" but, surprisingly, not a carbon copy of a character from Breaking Bad as far as I can tell (though there are shades of the show, for sure). Trevor is shown clambering around in his underwear, howling at the moon, and basically causing mayhem wherever he goes—"real hillbilly-type shit" as an unseen speaker describes it. His character definitely seems to embody the sandbox chaos of Grand Theft Auto's gameplay better than his two compatriots.

Three minutes of cut-scene footage are obviously not enough to judge the entirety of an unreleased game, especially when that footage shows off precious little gameplay that might differentiate it from previous entries in the series. Still, it's hard to look at this footage and not draw direct comparisons to other places we've seen these same basic stories done very well—and relatively recently.

Kyle Orland
Kyle is the Senior Gaming Editor at Ars Technica, specializing in video game hardware and software. He has journalism and computer science degrees from University of Maryland. He is based in the Washington, DC area. Emailkyle.orland@arstechnica.com//Twitter@KyleOrl

In this day and age of instant information I understand the want to get an article out a mere hour after a much-anticipated trailer is released. But this is a very superficial take on GTA V's new protagonists. It's hard to interpret anything from a trailer which contains less than a minute on each character (and most of that minute is explosions and car crashes and explosions).

Let's take a second before we start drawing broad comparisons between well-written games and well-written television? I'm sure there's more to it than we can think of in 60 minutes.

Considering the multi-character story arch, and the likelihood there's going to be a lot of interplay between the 3, I actually would have liked to see a less "seedy" character in the mix. Maybe someone like Vic Mackey (The Shield), where you get to play on the cop side, but where you're allowed to bend the rules a little.

Awesome, it's a demonstrable of Id, ego, and superego in motion. No wonder they work together in the game, they show exactly what happens when they are not working in tandem and the consequences. Hell, the music even enforces the theory. I expect we will see a lot of clashing between the guys sure, but its going to be interesting if they hold fast to the characters as much as they show in these trailers.

Can we finally save the game whenever we want? I stopped playing GTA 4 out of frustration. I played the same mission about 20 times. Each time at the very end a scripted sequence kicked off which ALWAYS tips off the cops and they start to chase. I ended up cornered or hitting a lamp post each time. Forget it.

After the disappointment of GTA IV, I'm still extremely wary. Really the best thing you can say at this point is at least you aren't playing a boring Russian sociopath. Rockstar will have to prove they went through their storage units and found their fun again before I will buy into another GTA.

Based on that the story looks totally uninteresting, with unlikeable, over the top characters. Again.

Still might pick it up just for the shear fun of open city GTA, but the story just looks wholly uninteresting. It'll probably get rave reviews for the writing/story, though, just like the previous GTAs I never finished.

Please don't make me answer the freakin' cell phone every 10 minutes to accept invitations to go bowling or play pool or get drunk and play darts, then have to call back right way to cancel said invitation, because if i just say no in the first place, my circle of friends who never seem to do me any favors get mad at me and lower their opinion of me. Schweine!!!

I can hope for better, but GTA IV just about ruined the series for me. I had beaten all of the previous GTA games ( I never tried the original though ), so I forced myself through GTA IV bhoping for some gem, plot twist, anything. The game was a complete let down. I guess it doesn't help that I find the greater new york area over played and confining for any sort of entertainment.

The third character looks like some sort of attempt at a character out of the show Justified, except they didn't get the memo that the really dumb ones like that, tend not to live very long on that show.

It's pretty standard for Rockstar to model its GTA protagonists and storylines on existing characters from other movies and TV so I expected nothing different with this entry. Although, I admit that Niko Bellic was less of a stereotype than previous protagonists or than the three who will appear in GTA 5 so it seems.

Vice City is still my favorite GTA game. It strikes the right balance in complexity, difficulty, realism, silliness, setting, and aesthetic for my liking. A more realistic bent ruined GTA 4 in certain areas (crotch rockets sucked until Lost and the Damned). Still, simply exploring Rockstar's simulated realities is worth the price of admission.

I'm just hoping they learned a lesson about plot pacing from Red Dead Redemption. I've played every GTA so far, and never finished any of them. The missions have always felt disjointed, and there's so much side crap, that I get distracted and burnt out on the game before I at least finish the main story line. On the other hand, RDR held my interest all the way through, and I don't even really like the Western genre.

After the no-fun-zone I experienced in GTAIV I'm extremely skeptical of Rockstar, and it didn't help they force-fed you their own personal politics the entire length of the game. And of course there is no mention of a PC version, after the mod community embarrassed them with minor tweaks in their poorly written engine to increase visual fidelity without increasing system load. Not to mention the ICE Mod, all of the enhancements which Rockstar is using for the basis of their engine overhaul for GTAV. They'll truly achieve scumbag developer status if they fail to release this game on PC.

The Sopranos one is a pretty shameless pull from the show. The thing I found most unfortunate is the exclusion of any female characters in the trailer except when referencing their boobs or being a cheating wife. The greatest thing about Sopranos was how strong the women were, seems like they entirely missed the boat. I guess we'll see for sure when it comes out.

After the no-fun-zone I experienced in GTAIV I'm extremely skeptical of Rockstar, and it didn't help they force-fed you their own personal politics the entire length of the game. And of course there is no mention of a PC version, after the mod community embarrassed them with minor tweaks in their poorly written engine to increase visual fidelity without increasing system load. Not to mention the ICE Mod, all of the enhancements which Rockstar is using for the basis of their engine overhaul for GTAV. They'll truly achieve scumbag developer status if they fail to release this game on PC.

Totally agree, but I don't think Rockstar will give a damn.... they'll be laughing all the way to the bank while PC gamers wait in the cold. Hell I'm still irked that RDR was never ported.

I can understand your pessimism there, but I made up on my mind on this a long time ago. While I truly appreciate PC gaming, I also appreciate the work that Rockstar tries to put into these games. If they come to the conclusion that releasing the title for PC would not be a viable option, I'd like them to ensure that a true quality product comes out for the consoles.

With the introduction of the PS4 in the future using the x86 architecture, even if we don't get a PC flavor this time, I feel porting has a strong future and that the divide between PC gaming and Console gaming will shrink.

Considering the multi-character story arch, and the likelihood there's going to be a lot of interplay between the 3, I actually would have liked to see a less "seedy" character in the mix. Maybe someone like Vic Mackey (The Shield), where you get to play on the cop side, but where you're allowed to bend the rules a little.

That would be interesting, although I guess not very GTA. It would be nice though if they at least have some intelligent law enforcement trying to bring down your operation.

I can understand your pessimism there, but I made up on my mind on this a long time ago. While I truly appreciate PC gaming, I also appreciate the work that Rockstar tries to put into these games. If they come to the conclusion that releasing the title for PC would not be a viable option, I'd like them to ensure that a true quality product comes out for the consoles.

With the introduction of the PS4 in the future using the x86 architecture, even if we don't get a PC flavor this time, I feel porting has a strong future and that the divide between PC gaming and Console gaming will shrink.

Anyone who has any further insight to this, please continue...

I agree with you in theory, but in practice I have to go back to GTAIV. I found the console version nearly unplayable due to seemingly random assistive auto aim, turning it off helped a bit, but when it came to the PC version (which the auto aim also rendered uncontrollable) when I turned it off I found that the keyboard and mouse offered needlepoint accuracy compared to the clunkiness of the control. This made the shooting sections effortlessly easy, but I found a sufficient challenge in some of the later driving sections for the Peggarino syndicate. Really I have this complaint about EVERY shooter released for consoles (regardless of perspective) so its not unique to GTA, but I can't pretend that the control scheme doesn't severely detract from my enjoyment of the game on consoles.

Can we finally save the game whenever we want? I stopped playing GTA 4 out of frustration. I played the same mission about 20 times. Each time at the very end a scripted sequence kicked off which ALWAYS tips off the cops and they start to chase. I ended up cornered or hitting a lamp post each time. Forget it.

I think they learned a lot of lessons with GTA4, if you play the "Liberty City Stories", specially Ballad of the Gay Tony, it's a lot more fun, you have checkpoints inside the missions (no more driving a lot to get somewhere just because you died near the end of a mission!), and it's generally more "fun", at least to me.

Its strange to me how closely people like to critique this type of game. I wouldn't play Grand Theft Auto expecting and deep intricate story line. I'm not really concerned about character development. All I'm looking for is a diverse, lively environment, with fun missions and acting out crazy fantasy behaviors. For me, these games always deliver. I'm looking forward to this. The only possible thing that would prevent me from purchasing is some ridiculous DRM scheme like an always-on internet connection requirement.

Really? You don't relate to crime bosses and lunatics? Video games are about escape, about doing or being anything that we normally can't because of the rules imposed on us by society and physics.

Honestly, after a long day at the office all I want to do is carjack a Balista Compact and speed down a crowded sidewalk. If GTA V will allow me to do that, I will buy it, no matter how bad the cutscenes are. There are probably drug lords and hitmen that spend their evenings playing Game Dev Story, dreaming about staring at a computer screen all day.

Please, oh please, fix the car handling. If I can't go on a rampage and enjoy it while I do, what's the point?

For a game called Grand Theft Auto, the driving being the jankiest part is unabashedly ironic. It'd be great if everything didn't control like there was a game genie with moonjump rammed into the system.